The Rabbit and the Roses
by Phantomstrata
Summary: Laplace has returned and wants the Rozen Maidens' powers for himself. Includes original characters created by myself: one human, two dolls. [On hiatus]
1. Chapter 1

The Rabbit and The Roses

Part One

By Phantomstrata

_She's here; she's finally here!_ Hana thought. One small hand clutched a small stuffed bear and a dried white rose close while the other gripped the edge of the chair she was sitting on. Barely able to contain her excitement, her feet kicked the air with unsuppressed energy; if not for the straps bound securely around her ankles the dress shoes she wore would have surely been tossed off. The movement caused her dress to rustle and moved the fresh rose resting against her knees, and before long she started fidgeting with the black lace framing her wrists and the silver ribbon and gem around her neck.

Hana watched, blue-gray eyes wide and taking everything in, as Mother tied the finishing bow in her sister's brown, curly hair. Kaida, her new sister, sat in a small chair, white hands folded on the black layers of her skirt, and the green of the dress's bodice shimmered in the warm glow of the hurricane lamp on the nearby end table. Her delicate little face was graced with her painted smile, and her eyelashes rested like dark downy feathers on her porcelain cheeks. Hana knew that at one time she had been like that, asleep, waiting to be awakened. Awakened by the same method Mother was about to use for Kaida. The woman leaned over the doll, pulling a key on a green ribbon from her neck as she did so. The key fit into the small hole in the center of Kaida's back, and Hana could hear the winding of a spring as it was turned. Mother stepped back, then turned and reached her hands to Hana.

"Come, dear." Mother took the white rose from Hana's lap, then carefully slid her hands beneath Hana's arms and lifted her, settling the doll on her lap as she sat in the chair. She wrapped one finger around a blond ringlet in Hana's ponytail and smoothed the doll's blue and black skirt. Together they watched. At first there was no movement. Then Kaida's eyelids began twitching. They opened slowly, revealing eyes cloudy with sleep. Soon her joints began twitching as well and she stood unsteadily, taking one jerky step forward, followed by another and another. She looked up at them with her grey-green gaze.

Mother smiled, extending her free arm and the white rose toward her new daughter. "Hello, my darling," she whispered.

I

"Hana, where are you going?" Kaida asked sleepily. She had been sleeping in her box until the crash, and opened the lid to find her sister creeping out of their room followed closely by Posy, her spirit.

"Sh! I heard something!"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, that's what I'm going to see!"

"Oh." Kaida looked around. Most of their toys and books were resting neatly on shelves and in boxes, but those that were strewn around the floor formed eerie shapes with distorted shadows. "Wait! I want to come, too!" Kaida's own spirit, Pixie, circled her head in response to the doll's agitation.

Hana sighed. "All right, come on." She took Kaida's hand and together they crept out of their room and down the hall to Mother's chambers. Her door was open a crack as usual, but when the opened it all the way, they saw her bed in the middle of the room, empty and with the bed sheets and blankets thrown back.

"Where's Mother?" Kaida whispered.

"Huh?"

"Mother isn't sleeping." She looked at the clock on the wall. Two hours past midnight. "Mother is never awake this late. Where is she?"

Hana looked confused. Her little face showed a troubled expression. She looked at the empty bed. "I….I don't know. Let's go find her."

She took Kaida's hand again and led her to the connecting room. At a glance it appeared empty, but something was wrong. One of the many tall windows lining the sides of the room was broken; shattered pieces of glass glittered from the silver blue moonlight and covered the carpet in front of the cracked frame and the bench of the nearby piano. Just beyond that in the shadow of the instrument, lay a figure.

"Mother!"

The dolls ran to her. Her red hair was a mess around her head, the curls tangled and pulled from the braid she usually wore at night. Her nightgown was slick and stained, but her chest still heaved as she drew air into her lungs. She tried to push herself up from the ground, but the strain was too overpowering and she collapsed again. Hana and Kaida fell beside her, sobbing and trying to help, but with their small size they couldn't provide the help she needed.

"Such lovely creations," a low voice came from the shadows.

Mother lifted her head. "Laplace!"

A tall, slender rabbit dressed in a tuxedo stepped into view and bent his thin frame into a low bow. "We meet again, Katrine."

I

He rose. "I suppose Rozen thought he could hide you here in your own N-field, the fool." He stepped lightly over to her side and bent low again. "But I would have found you eventually." He looked around the room and noticed the vase of blooming white roses. "So your roses are white, are they? I didn't expect to see any of your family's lovely flowers anywhere, what with it being the midst of winter and everything."

"Why? Why can't you just leave us alone?" Katrine whispered. She coughed hard, and the dolls looked at her in worry, tears beginning to trickle down their pale cheeks.

"Your brother had been given a magnanimous talent, Katrine. You've been given the same, of course, but your abilities are not developed enough to rival his." Laplace glanced at the two dolls. "I must say that you have improved over your first attempts." There was a gleam that appeared in his eye as he said this, and Hana and Kaida immediately pressed closer against Katrine. She could feel their bodies shaking with fright.

"They have nothing to do with my brother's foolish Alice Game, Laplace! Leave them out of this! There is no need for their involvement!"

He laughed. "But they are still members of Rozen's family, and their abilities combined with my own will finally allow me to defeat Rozen's maidens and bring about the birth of Alice, the ultimate perfection. With the edition of her power, I will finally be allowed to leave this cursed place." He gestured. "I can only cause so much mayhem in an N-field; imagine the possibilities if I could only enter the world outside!"

Quickly he reached down and grabbed Hana and Kaida, wrapping a thin arm around each doll's waist. They screamed and kicked but he was unfazed. "I hate to be leaving so quickly, but they are making such a scene." He turned back to Mother. "My apologies for breaking your window. It's your brother's fault that I had to; if he hadn't created a portal-less N-field I wouldn't have had to break it to get in." With a great leap he perched on the window sill and gave a final bow. "Farewell." He jumped from the window and vanished, trailed by the screams of the dolls.

Katrine watched horrified, then began sobbing uncontrollably. _Rozen….where are you…?_ she thought. A glow from across the room drew her attention, and she looked to the mirror on the far wall.

Another N-field. But only Rozen or she was able to make them from this place. Rozen. His dolls. She must find them. She must warn them that Laplace is coming.

"S...s...Sada….." A small silver spirit flew up beside her. "Find…. Rozen…. Maidens...Laplace…is…coming…." The small spirit flew toward the mirror and vanished. _Oh, please find them, Sada_. It was her final thought before she fainted, still laying in a pool of her own blood and tears.

_A/N: My first attempt at a Rozen Maiden fanfic; it will include original characters created by myself. I'm hoping to have pictures of them at some point so you can get an idea of what Katrine, Hana, and Kaida are supposed to look like. Thank you for reading; comments are welcomed and appreciated -_


	2. Chapter 2

The Rabbit and the Roses

Part Two

By Phantomstrata

Jun removed his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. The headache pounding through his skull was not helping his homework situation at all. He knew he should really stop doing this, staying up into the wee hours of the morning staring at the backlit screen of his computer and trying to figure out how these little letters called "variables" had anything to do with numbers. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he silently cursed the man who'd come up with the idea in the first place.

_I hate algebra_, he thought to himself. To his left, Shinku sat perched on the edge of his bed, reading as usual, though no longer alone. After the most recent Alice Game Suiseiseki had begun to join her, silently reading over her younger sister's shoulder. It seemed as though she had exchanged her usually boisterous personality for her twin's more melancholy one. Kanaria had come to visit earlier that afternoon, and both of the dolls had been very quiet after her departure. The trio had tried to pretend like everything was back to normal, but the knowledge of the two boxes in his room whose occupants would not awaken had put a damper on any happiness.

It wasn't as obvious with Shinku, whose face bore her normal calm yet unreadable expression. Her posture was perfect and she was every bit the aristocrat she acted. With Suiseiseki, however, the stress was more visible as shown by the slight, sad frown and haunted eyes. She rested her chin on Shinku's shoulder and seemed to use the younger doll for support.

"Well, I'm going to bed now," Jun finally said, breaking the silence. He realized at this point that he wasn't going to make anymore progress on the math, and the dolls were probably only awake because he was. Besides, maybe the sleep would take care of his headache.

Shinku shut the book then slid gracefully off the bed, followed by Suiseiseki. "Very well." She placed the book back on her shelf, glancing quickly to Hina's small, crowded space, which had remained untouched since the start of the Alice Game. Her sigh was almost inaudible, but Jun could tell that for all the mischief Hina sometimes caused, she was missed greatly.

"Good night," Jun called to both of them as they stepped into their boxes. Only Shinku answered him; Suiseiseki gave the slightest nod in his direction before snapping closed the lid of her box. He rubbed his eyes again, then moved to the bed and turned down the blankets. It was a cold night. He couldn't remember it feeling this cold before. He shivered. _I should've turned up the heat before going to bed…._was the last thought in his mind as he fell asleep.

I

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._

Shinku lay in her box wondering what it was that was knocking on Jun's bedroom door. The sound was disturbing her sleep, and if it was one thing she hated it was having her sleep interrupted. She tried to fall back to sleep, but couldn't manage it. Finally she reached the point where she could no longer tolerate it anymore.

"Holie!"

The small spirit flew from the box to hover at Shinku's eye level. Shinku turned toward the door and with the help of her cane turned the handle. A spirit zoomed in, then flew around the room in crazy, irregular patterns. It gave off a silvery color, and its presence seemed to excite Holie to where the red spirit took to chasing the silver. Within seconds of the new spirit's entrance, Suiseiseki's spirit, Sui Dream, had leapt out and joined in the fray, leaving behind a very sleepy and disgruntled owner.

"Sui Dream, what are you doing, desu? I'm going to…." Suiseiseki's words faded as she noticed the new spirit. Cautiously she climbed out and moved to stand behind Shinku. The spirits clustered together as if holding their own conversation before the silver spirit slowly approached the dolls. No audible words were spoken, but they immediately understood the message.

"Shinku?"

"Yes, we should go," she agreed to Suiseiseki's silent question. "Jun?"

The boy was still asleep, and snoring to boot. In his sleep he had managed to roll himself near the edge of the bed, tossing one of his blankets to the floor. "Such a noisy servant," she muttered delicately. She walked up to the side of his bed and lifted her cane.

"OOF!"

Jun sat up gasping and rubbed the spot where the handle of the cane had come crashing down on his gut. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"Come, Jun. We're leaving."

"Leaving?" He took a moment to grab his glasses and glanced at the clock. His annoyance became even more evident. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to visit our aunt. And she will not appreciate it very much if we are late. Therefore, we should be going now." She turned and walked through the door, followed closely by Suiseiseki and the spirits.

"Aunt? Since when did you have an aunt?" He mumbled.

I

Holie went through the mirror followed closely by Sui Dream while Shinku and Suiseiseki waited for Jun to catch up with them. The silver spirit, Sada was the name it had given them, flitted about their heads with pent up energy. Jun finally came sauntering in, stretching his arms and yawning.

"You are late."

He gave Shinku a bored expression and yawned again.

"Not only is the chibi noisy, he's lazy as well, desu!" Suiseiseki exclaimed.

"He is, indeed." Shinku agreed.

Jun scowled. "Am not!" he retorted, the best thing he could come up with on an hour and a half of sleep.

Shinku turned back to the mirror without acknowledging his response and stepped through the glass accompanied by Sada. Suiseiseki glanced at him before she passed through, leaving Jun to stand alone in the now dark room.

"Why do I get myself mixed up in these situations?" he lamented aloud, then with a reluctant sigh he followed them. _They could have at least told me WHERE we were going!_

_A/N: Hm, I think this part is a little shorter than the first, but oh well. I now have a picture of Hana posted; the link is on my profile. Reviews are welcomed and greatly appreciated, so thanks in advance. -_


End file.
